FR3094608A1 - TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK OF AN ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM INCLUDING USER TERMINALS FOR A MOBILE PASSENGER TRANSPORT DEVICE, USER TERMINAL, MOBILE DEVICE AND ASSOCIATED TELECOMMUNICATION PROCESS - Google Patents

Abstract

Telecommunications network of an entertainment system comprising user terminals for a mobile passenger transport vehicle, user terminal, mobile vehicle and associated telecommunication method Telecommunications network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10 ) for a mobile passenger transport vehicle, said network comprising user terminals (10) of the entertainment system and being characterized in that each of said user terminals constitutes a radiocommunication node of a mesh telecommunication network (1), a a plurality of said nodes being adapted to exchange data in said mesh network in a first telecommunication mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency. Figure for the abstract: Figure 1

Description

Telecommunication network of an entertainment system comprising user terminals for a mobile passenger transport vehicle, user terminal, mobile vehicle and associated telecommunication method

The present invention relates to the field of entertainment systems for mobile passenger transport vehicles, and in particular that of in-flight entertainment systems or IFE (in English "In-flight Entertainment") which are mainly found on board aircraft. long-haul commercial aviation.

These systems allow passengers to consult multimedia content, to be informed of certain flight parameters, to broadcast crew announcements, etc.

These on-board entertainment systems include user terminals, usually with screens or tablets, attached to the back of the seats facing the passengers in the seats behind; these user terminals are generally all connected by a wired communication network to a content server which is also on board. However, these wired networks entail strong installation constraints in the cabin and add weight to the systems. Other systems replace the wired links with wireless links, for example Wi-Fi, but this requires the addition of special equipment, for example of the WAP (Wireless Access Point) type. The metallic environment of the cabin and the connection density (one user terminal per seat) severely limits the bandwidth available to everyone. And a communication between two user terminals necessarily passes through a WAP device.

In addition, for these systems, the context is as follows: there is a high density of user terminals (more than 100 user terminals over 50 m ^{2 )} , the environment is metallic, interference may occur between radio signals emitted by several user terminals.

The object of the invention is then to propose a solution for implementing an on-board entertainment system which contributes to reducing these drawbacks.

To this end, according to a first aspect, the invention proposes a telecommunications network of an entertainment system comprising user terminals for a mobile passenger transport vehicle, said network comprising user terminals of the entertainment system and being characterized in that each of said user terminals constitutes a radiocommunication node of a meshed telecommunications network, a plurality of said nodes being suitable for exchanging data in said meshed network in a first telecommunications mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency.

The invention thus makes it possible to provide a telecommunications solution for an entertainment system within a mobile machine comprising a high density of user terminals of the entertainment system, on the basis of a mesh network consisting of these user terminals, having reduced weight and increased resilience capabilities.

In some embodiments, the telecommunications network of an entertainment system comprising user terminals for a mobile passenger transport vehicle according to the invention further comprises one or more of the following characteristics:

said first frequency is greater than 30 GHz;

a mesh network user terminal exchanges data on said first frequency with a predefined maximum number of other mesh network user terminals and/or with a predefined minimum number greater than or equal to 2, other mesh network user terminals;

the locations of said terminals are fixed, said predefined maximum number is equal to a value equal to 4, respectively 8, of other user terminals and only among the closest neighbors of said user terminal;

each of said nodes is also suitable for, simultaneously or not simultaneously with an exchange of data on the first frequency, exchanging data in said mesh network according to a second mode of telecommunication, among a wireless telecommunication on a second frequency and a wired telecommunication;

the nodes exchange data in accordance with a routing protocol adapted to define a route comprising several nodes for data transmission and to select, for each route segment between two successive nodes among the nodes of the route, a mode of communication among at least minus the first mode and the second mode of communication.

According to a second aspect, the present invention proposes a user terminal of an entertainment system for a passenger transport vehicle suitable for forming a radiocommunication node of a mesh telecommunications network, and for exchanging data in said mesh network in a first telecommunication mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency

According to a third aspect, the present invention proposes a mobile passenger transport vehicle comprising user terminals of an entertainment system, each user terminal constituting a node of a telecommunications network according to the second aspect.

According to a fourth aspect, the present invention proposes a telecommunications method for an entertainment system comprising user terminals in a mobile passenger transport vehicle , said method comprising the following steps:

• implementation of a meshed telecommunications network, each of said user terminals constituting a radiocommunication node of said meshed network;
• exchanging data in said mesh network between a plurality of said nodes in a first telecommunication mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency.

These characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear on reading the following description, given solely by way of example, and made with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 represents a view of a telecommunications mesh network of an in-flight entertainment system in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a user terminal of an in-flight entertainment system in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 represents a view of a telecommunications mesh network of an in-flight entertainment system in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 represents the sequence of steps over time;

FIG. 5 illustrates the telecommunications range zone of a user terminal in one embodiment;

Figure 6 is a flowchart of steps implemented in one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 represents a view of a set of user terminals 10 of an in-flight entertainment system in an airplane (not represented). These user terminals 10 are arranged, in the embodiment considered, in the seats of the aircraft, one user terminal per seat, so that each passenger seated in a seat faces the screen of a user terminal arranged in the back of the seat in front of him.

In one embodiment, the density of the user terminals is greater than 50 by 50 m ² , or even 100 by 50 m ² .

In the case considered, the user terminals 10 thus form, like the seats, matrices corresponding to islands.

The islands are themselves arranged in the particular case in a matrix of 2 columns and n rows of islands, the rows being distributed between the nose and the tail of the aircraft. In figure 1 are represented 2 columns and two rows of these islands, a first row comprising the islands 2, 3 and a second row, the islands 4, 3.

Each block in the present case consists of a matrix of 3 rows and 3 columns of user terminals 10: terminal 10 in 1 ^st line, 1 ^st column 10 is referenced _11, in the 1 ^st line, 2 ^nd column is referenced 10 _12, the 2 ^nd row, 1 ^st column is referenced October ₂₁ etc. (in general, a terminal placed in row i and column j is referenced 10 _ij ).

This arrangement is only one example and the invention is applicable to multiple arrangements of user terminals in the aircraft.

Figure 2 is a schematic view of a user terminal 10 of an in-flight entertainment system in one embodiment of the invention.

The user terminal 10 comprises an HMI man-machine interface 9, a processing module 11, an application module 14 and a telecommunications module 16.

The human-machine interface IHM 9 comprises for example a touch screen, or a screen and an interaction peripheral, for example a keyboard.

The application module 14 comprises one or more application blocks 15.

The telecommunications module 16 comprises a control block 17 and one or more telecommunications interfaces 18 - including a telecommunications interface 18, named COM1 - adapted to transmit and receive data in respective modes.

The processing module 11 is suitable for controlling and coordinating the operation of the application module 14, of the human-machine interface IHM 9 and of the telecommunications module 16. In one embodiment, it comprises a microprocessor 12 and a memory 13.

Each user terminal 10 is suitable for delivering to passengers the content offered by the in-flight entertainment system.

For example, following a selection by a passenger of a field displayed on the screen of the HMI 9 of his user terminal 10, the processing module 11 is adapted to identify that a menu to be obtained must then be displayed. of one of the applications 15, for example a list of films. Then upon detection of the selection of a film by the passenger, the processing module 11 is adapted to trigger the display of the film on the screen. In addition to films, the content delivered by the applications can be diverse: multimedia content, for example films, TV shows, games or music, flight parameters (altitude, speed, etc.) and sound progress (for example using a “moving map”), announcements (audio and/or video) from the crew.

Since all of the data to be broadcast is not stored in each user terminal and some of said data also requires regular refreshing, data transmissions to a user terminal and/or from the user terminal are necessary for the supply of the contents of the entertainment system. According to the embodiments, the data relating to the current state of the flight comes from a wired or wireless gateway device (“Aircraft Gateway”), the multimedia contents are for example cut up and the storage of the different parts is distributed among several user terminals, each user terminal then requesting that all the content it needs be transmitted to it and stored elsewhere than within said user terminal (for example in other user terminals).

According to the invention, a telecommunications mesh network 1 is implemented for data telecommunications in the in-flight entertainment system and each on-board user terminal 10 (or each user terminal 10 of a subset of the on-board user terminals 10 ), via its telecommunications module 16, constitutes a telecommunications node of the mesh network 1.

In a known way, a mesh network (or mesh network or mesh network) is a network topology (wired and wireless) where all the nodes are connected peer to peer without a central hierarchy, thus forming a net-like structure. Therefore, each node must be able to receive, send and relay data. This avoids having hotspots which, if they fail, isolate part of the network. If a node is down, the data takes an alternate route.

A communication mesh network consists of a plurality of nodes interconnected by unidirectional or bidirectional communication links.

In such a network, the routing of a message between a sender node and a destination node uses intermediate nodes to relay the message and relies on a routing mechanism. In the considered embodiment, the routing mechanism is implemented by the control block 17 of the telecommunications module 16.

Thus in the embodiment considered, the telecommunication interface COM1 18 is adapted to form a node of a mesh radiocommunication network communicating with the other nodes of the network 1 via a shared radio channel at a frequency f1 . To do this, each COM1 telecommunications interface 16 comprises a radiofrequency transmitter at frequency f1, a radiofrequency receiver at frequency f1, a modulator, a demodulator, a power amplifier, an analog/digital converter, a digital/analog converter and a radio frequency transmission and reception antenna.

The frequency f1 is for example chosen to be greater than 30 GHz, in particular between 30 GHz and 300 GHz.

In an embodiment considered here, f1 is greater than 57 GHz, for example it is included in the frequency band of the IEEE802.11ad or ay standard, i.e. f1 is between 57 GHz and 71 GHz. Each telecommunications interface COM1 18 is thus configured in Ad-Hoc (or IBSS) mode according to the IEEE802.11ad or ay standard in order to be connected according to this point-to-point standard with the neighboring user terminals 10 on the frequency f1. The frequency used f1 (or channel) as well as the network ID 1 (or SSID) and the authentication information are specified by configuration for each user terminal 10, via its control block 17.

Each of these user terminals 10 is adapted to constitute a node of the ad hoc network 1, which can be a terminal node, that is to say initial source or final recipient of a data message, or intermediate node for the reception and retransmitting a data message along a routing path between an initial source and an end recipient of the data message.

Each node knows, via a routing protocol, the topology of mesh network 1: i.e. the list of nodes and the list of subnets that constitute the routing space. The constitution of this routing space as well as its internal topology can evolve over time. To keep knowledge of the state of the network topology up to date, a so-called dynamic network discovery function 1 is implemented by each node. The control block 17 is adapted to determine which is the best route (according for example to the current latency determined on each communication link) to reach the final destination node of the data (optionally this route depends on the type of data to be transmitted ) and therefore to which neighboring node (ie to which node of network 1 sufficiently close for a direct radio link to be established) (re)transmit a data message so that the latter is routed step by step to the final recipient .

The implementation of a mesh network 1 consisting of user terminals 10 avoids the establishment of physical links, gives the possibility of adding, removing, replacing a user terminal, the architecture of the telecommunications network of the entertainment system is thus easily adjustable and offers weight limitation.

Such a mesh network 1 is resilient to the interruption of one of the connections between nodes (since there are several paths connecting two nodes of the network): the communications within the system are thus less sensitive to disturbances from the environment such as the passage of the crew with a metal trolley, a passenger who gets up, a breakdown of one of the terminals, etc.

The implementation of such a network also allows a connection between the terminals step by step, and allows a lower power of transmission of the radiofrequency signal by the user terminals 10, and therefore potentially less danger for the health of the passengers and of the crew. The use of the frequency f1 with a value greater than 57 GHz, for example between 57 GHz and 71 GHz, allows the limitation of the direct communication range from each user terminal (and thus to have fine control over the number of user terminals within range of the user terminal), therefore massively using the same network channels by limiting interference with other terminals or with other equipment (such as mobile phones, microwaves, galleys (inter-zone spaces containing the crew equipment), etc.

According to the embodiments, the mesh network 1 is configured in such a way that, given the geographical position of the user terminals (and in the case of the user terminals installed in the seats, this position is fixed), the number of user terminals 10 with which a user terminal 10 can communicate on frequency f1 is:

at least equal to a fixed number N, with N fixed and greater than or equal to 2 (which increases the resilience of the network); and or

at most equal to M, with M fixed and greater than or equal to 2.

For example, with reference to Figure 5 illustrating an island of user terminals arranged in the form of a 5x5 matrix, in one embodiment, M is set equal to 8 so that a user terminal cannot communicate directly on the frequency f1 only with its direct row, column and diagonal neighbours: either, considering the terminal 10 ₃₃ , the latter can only communicate directly on the frequency f1 with the terminals 10 located (totally or partially) at the inside the dotted circle C2.

Still, with reference to FIG. 5, in another embodiment, M is set equal to 4 so that a user terminal can only communicate directly on frequency f1 with its direct row and column neighbors: either , considering the terminal 10 ₃₃ , the latter can communicate directly on the frequency f1 only with the terminals located (totally or partially) inside the dotted circle C2. This characteristic is, in one embodiment, worked out by defining the transmission power and/or the orientation of the antenna of the terminal 10 ₃₃ , by ensuring that each terminal cannot transmit a radio signal on the frequency f1 (for example 60 GHz) only within a limited perimeter including only these 4 neighbors among all the user terminals 10 (similarly, these parameters can be adapted to also allow communication with the diagonal neighbors for the case mentioned above M = 8).

This limitation of neighboring terminals with which to communicate makes it possible to reduce interference.

The control of the user terminals 10, and of their number, with which a user terminal can communicate directly via the mesh network, can be done by various methods, possibly combined: choice of the value of the radio frequency f1 configured for the user terminal and its neighbors for ad hoc transmission, specific SSID network identifier limiting exchanges to only terminals configured with this SSID, and/or as indicated above, transmission power of the user terminal and/or use of directional antennas, taking into account the known "configuration" of the aircraft, and in particular parameters such as the number of seats, the gap between the seats, the environment (seat material, etc.).

In one embodiment, the communication module 16 of each of all or part of the user terminals 10 of the mesh network 1 further comprises at least one, or more, other telecommunications interfaces 18 suitable for exchanging data with other user terminals 10 according to a communication mode distinct from the communication mode implemented by the telecommunications interface COM1 18 at the frequency f1. This provision has the effect of improving data transmission performance and gaining bandwidth.

Data communicated via the mesh network between a source node and a destination node can thus successively take hops of different natures: wired and/or wireless communication modes in distinct modes. It will be noted that in some embodiments, some of the user terminals of the mesh network 1 do not include a COM1 type communication interface but only include a COM2 communication interface.

For example, in one embodiment, the communication module 16 thus comprises a COM2 interface 18 adapted to implement a wired communication, according to for example an Ethernet protocol, via cabling between user terminals. This arrangement makes it possible to use existing cables, also gives the possibility of communicating between two distant zones (unreachable with the frequency f1), or between two zones separated by a wall.

In another embodiment, the communication module 16 thus comprises a COM2 18 interface (or else a COM3 18 interface in addition to the COM1 18 and COM2 18 interface mentioned above), allowing the implementation of a communication wirelessly on a frequency f2 separate from frequency f1. This interface 18 then comprises a transmitter at frequency f2, a receiver at frequency f2, a modulator, a demodulator, a power amplifier, an analog/digital converter, a digital/analog converter and a transmission and reception antenna. In an embodiment where separate telecommunication interfaces 16 COM1 and COM2, the user terminal can transmit and receive data at the same time, which has the effect of increasing the overall bandwidth of the network.

For example, f2 is included in one of the frequency bands of the IEEE802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax standards (ie frequencies around 5GHz or 2.4 GHz), which allows communication between two terminals users to communicate located in two distant areas, or separated by walls or galleys.

For example f2 is greater than 30 GHz.

For example f2 is included in the frequency band of the IEEE802.11 ad/ay standards (ie 60Ghz band).

In one embodiment, the control block 17 of a user terminal, here named TA, is adapted to, when data is to be transmitted to a user terminal, named TB, select those of the communication interfaces 18 of the terminal TA to be used for this purpose, according to routing optimization criteria, for example according to latency information indicating the latency on the various links, according to the various existing communication modes, between nodes of the mesh network 1 up to the terminal TB; or depending on the number of jumps.

For example, the control block 17 implements to determine an optimized route among all the physical interfaces of each terminal a protocol such as B.A.T.M.A.N., OLSR, Openmesh, etc.

By way of illustration of the contribution of a COM2 communication interface 18 combined with a COM1 communication interface 18, consider three user terminals 10, hereinafter named T1, T2, T3, T1 storing the CONT content and in front of the transmit to T2 and T3.

In a first case, consider that the telecommunications module 16 of each of T1, T2 and T3 only has an interface 18 COM1 on the frequency f1.

Referring to the timeline t at the top of Figure 4, at t0, T1 first sends CONT content to T2 via frequency f1 (step a ₁ ), and only once the content is fully loaded on T2, T1 can send it to T3, or T2 can also send it to T3 on f1 (step b1). At time t1, T2 and T3 both benefit from the CONT content and can exploit it.

In a second case, consider now that the telecommunications module 16 of T1, T2 and T3 has an interface 18 COM1 on frequency f1 and an interface 18 COM2 on frequency f2; the content CONT is divided for example into two sub-contents CONT1 and CONT2.

With reference to the time line t at the bottom of figure 4, at t0,

In this configuration, at time t0, the terminal T1 first sends the CONT1 sub-content to T2 via the frequency f1 (step a2), then (step a3) while CONT2 is sent by T1 to T2 always at the frequency f1 ; then T2 will send the content CONT2 to T3 via the second frequency f2 (step a4) (thus limiting interference). Finally, T2 will send the CONT2 content to T3. At time t2<t1, T2 and T2 both benefit from the CONT content and can exploit it.

This chain transfer principle can of course be applied with more than three terminals, and also with more than two different frequencies (so as to limit interference as much as possible).

With reference to FIG. 1, island 2 is considered. Terminals 10 of island 2 are configured to implement between them wireless links 6, as represented by thin lines between two points in FIG. , on a frequency f1 (for example f1 equal to 60 GHz) with other terminals of the island 2. In addition such a link 6 on the frequency f1 exists between a user terminal of the island 2, the terminal 10 ₂₃ , and a user terminal of island 3, terminal 10 ₃₁ .

Similar links on frequency f1 are shown in Figure 1 for islands 4 and 5.

On the other hand, the islands 2, 3 being too far from the islands 4, 5 for there to be communication between them via the frequency f1, during the configuration of the mesh network 1, at least one user terminal of the island 2 and a user terminal of the island 3 are interconnected by a link 7 (shown in bold lines), for example of the Ethernet cable or optical fiber type or even a wireless link on a frequency f2 as defined above, for example in the frequency range around 5 GHz.

In another embodiment, with reference to FIG. 3, user terminals in an airplane are considered, grouped together in respective islands 20, 21.

In each island 20, 21, the terminals are organized geographically in the form of a 3*3 matrix. The terminals of each island line are connected by wire links 19, put in place during the original wiring of the aircraft. According to the invention, a mesh network is implemented on the basis of these wired links (via a wired COM2 type interface) represented in solid lines between terminals of the same island line and wireless links 23 between terminals , shown in broken lines, which are added (via a COM1 type interface) to connect the islands together, for example in the particular case represented in FIG. 3, to connect together in the mesh network, the terminal 10 ₁₃ of the island 20 to terminal 10 ₁₁ of island 21, terminal 10 ₂₃ of island 20 to terminal 10 ₃₁ of island 21 etc. Wireless links are also added within the same island to further increase the resilience of the mesh network.

Referring to Figure 6, the invention further provides a set 100 of steps.

In a first step 101, a mesh network 1 of an in-flight entertainment system is defined, the communication nodes of which are the user terminals 10 of the entertainment system as described above, without there being any hierarchy pre-established between the user terminals, which may all be similar and whose behavior is governed by the same mesh network communication rules.

According to the embodiments, the mesh is based on wireless and/or wired telecommunication links; the possibilities of wireless telecommunication are in some embodiments limited by choice of frequency, and/or radiation pattern and/or radiation power, etc. as detailed above.

In a step 102, telecommunications are implemented between the terminals on the basis of this mesh network. And in the event of a failure on a user terminal, or a faulty telecommunications link between two user terminals, the user terminals of the mesh network recalculate the transmission routes in real time to adapt to the change in configuration of the mesh network, to the using their control block 17.

In one embodiment, each node corresponds to a layered architecture; those implemented by the telecommunications module 16 correspond for example to layers 1, 2 and 3 of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model, all offering a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer ( including routing). By layer is meant a set of hardware or software means for implementing the corresponding function.

It will be noted that user terminals of a mesh network according to the invention can be mobile, for example, those used by crew members.

In one embodiment, the frequency f1 and/or f2 is of the Li-Fi type, greater than 300 GHz. For example, in such a case, the user terminals on the same line communicate in ad hoc mode with each other via Li-Fi.

The present invention has been described above in the specific case of an airplane. In other embodiments, it is implemented in other machines comprising a high density of user terminals of an on-board entertainment system, for example boats, buses, trains, etc.

Claims (10)

Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) for a mobile passenger transport vehicle, said network comprising user terminals (10) of the entertainment system and being characterized in that each of said terminals users constitutes a radio communication node of a telecommunication mesh network (1), a plurality of said nodes being suitable for exchanging data in said mesh network in a first telecommunication mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency. Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) according to claim 1, wherein said first frequency is higher than 30 GHz. Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) according to claim 1 or 2, adapted so that a user terminal of the mesh network (1) exchanges data on said first frequency with a maximum number predefined other user terminals of the mesh network and/or with a predefined minimum number greater than or equal to 2, other user terminals of the mesh network. Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) according to one of the preceding claims, in which the locations of said terminals are fixed, said predefined maximum number is equal to a value equal to 4, respectively 8, other user terminals and only among the nearest neighbors of said user terminal. Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) according to one of the preceding claims, in which each of the said nodes is furthermore adapted for, simultaneously or not, an exchange of data on the first frequency , exchanging data in said mesh network according to a second mode of telecommunication, among a wireless telecommunication on a second frequency and a wired telecommunication. Telecommunication network (1) of an entertainment system comprising user terminals according to claim 5, in which the nodes exchange data according to a routing protocol adapted to define a route comprising several nodes for the transmission of data and to select , for each road segment between two successive nodes among the nodes of the road, a communication mode from among at least the first mode and the second communication mode. User terminal (10) of an entertainment system for a passenger transport vehicle adapted to constitute a radiocommunication node of a mesh telecommunications network (1), and to exchange data in said mesh network in a first mode of telecommunication on at least a first wireless communication frequency. Mobile passenger transport vehicle comprising user terminals of an entertainment system, each user terminal constituting a node of a telecommunications network according to the preceding claims. Mobile passenger transport vehicle according to claim 6, in which said mobile vehicle is an aircraft, the user terminals are installed at each seat of the aircraft intended to accommodate a passenger, contents of the in-flight entertainment system being delivered to user terminals via the mesh network. Telecommunication method for an entertainment system comprising user terminals (10) in a mobile passenger transport vehicle, said method comprising the following steps:
- implementation of a telecommunications mesh network (1), each of said user terminals constituting a radio communication node of said mesh network;
- exchanging data in said mesh network between a plurality of said nodes in a first telecommunication mode on at least a first wireless communication frequency.